Tuesday

Sep 18, 2018 at 10:35 AMSep 18, 2018 at 1:41 PM

Rep. Seth Moulton, who was unopposed in the Sept. 4 state Democratic primary and is running for a third, two-year term, recently told North Shore Democrats he won’t be in the 6th District as much as he’d like in the weeks leading up to Election Day.

Congressman Seth Moulton, D-Salem, won’t be around much this election season, despite the fact that he faces challenges from an independent and a Republican.

For the open Massachusetts’ 6th Congressional District seat in the Tuesday, Nov. 6 mid-term election, independent Mary J. Charbonneau, a Salem native and Rockport resident, as well as Republican Joseph Schneider, a Beverly resident, veteran and businessman, seek to unseat the two-term incumbent.

Moulton, who was unopposed in the Sept. 4 Democratic primary and is running for a third, two-year term, told North Shore Democrats he won’t be in the 6th District as much as he’d like in the weeks leading up to Election Day.

“Because part of what I’ve committed to this year is to go across the country and help win back swing districts that we need to take back the Congress,” Moulton said before over 200 North Shore Democrats who attended the Marblehead Democratic Town Committee’s Aug. 20 picnic. “In committing to do that – a project so many of you have supported – I’m taking a conscious risk and I’m being very transparent about the fact that I’m not going to be home as much as I’d like.”

Moulton has already been traveling across the country, in part, to stump for candidates whom he and his political action committee, Serve America, have endorsed.

Serve America, which Moulton founded in 2014, endeavors to transform “our nation’s capital and state capitals across the country by supporting a new generation of leaders who will put people over politics.”

In the beginning, Serve America exclusively backed veterans running for political office, but it has since expanded to include candidates with public-service backgrounds.

Moulton’s pledge to stump in swing districts and for Serve America-backed candidates has and will continue to inherently expand his political reach and garner him national name recognition. Some speculate Serve America is building a political framework for a future Moulton White House bid.

Given Moulton’s commitment to travel across the country this election season, even in the face of his political challengers, he told Democrats gathered at the Marblehead picnic: “I need your help in my re-election.

“I need to make sure that we win this district against a Republican challenge just like we need to win districts across the country, so thank you for everything you do,” said Moulton. “We need your help. We need your support. We’re relying on you.”

Moulton, a decorated Marine who served four tours in the Iraq War over five years, a graduate with three Harvard degrees and a Marblehead native, stunned the Democratic Party's establishment when he unseated former congressman John Tierney in 2014. Moulton, since he first ran for political office in 2014 and entered Congress in 2015, has marched to the beat of his own drum.

“The status quo isn’t working. We’re not going to fix the problems facing Americans today without a fresh perspective, a new approach,” writes Moulton in a cover-letter-like introduction to Serve America’s more than two dozen mid-term congressional and state-level candidate endorsements. “The American people need more service-driven leaders who put people over politics - who have courage to do what is right, not just what is politically expedient.”

Moulton is an outspoken critic of House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-San Francisco. At the start of the 2017-18 legislative session, after a bruising 2016 election cycle that left the party stunned, he led and was among 63 House Democrats who voted against the San Francisco Democrat’s minority-leader nomination.

While Moulton’s leadership and vote on the Pelosi nomination has set him apart from the party’s establishment, she retained her leadership position.

Meanwhile, Democrats have not claimed a House majority since 2011. In order to change the status quo, Moulton argues: “The Democratic Party needs a new generation of leadership - one focused on the future.”